By this time Gabriel had already forgotten about the deal he had made with his boss, partially because it had been losing strength, so it hadn’t been used in order for Gabriel to believe that it was still fully working, while it had had the opposite effect.

Therefore, the day of the attack, when Gabriel physically betrayed his boss, he felt very weak and immense pain on the head as he lit the fire. He was still good enough to escape from the fire but if anyone fought him, he’d most likely lose.

When the fire was lit, the contract that Gabriel had signed had started glowing, but everyone, even the boss, was focused on the defense of Destin as they started to see the incoming army and they were already bigger than what they expected, yet more and more enemies appeared from the darkness.

They still hadn’t attacked Destin in any way, they were all putting themselves into formation, so the soldiers defending Destin were ordered to shoot at them, but wizards deflected almost every arrow. Some of the attackers got hurt, but it was senseless to keep wasting ammo which later could prove critical.

The fire was still small, only occupying the room where Gabriel had started it but once it got bigger there would be a cascading effect and more and more buildings would get lit up. Meanwhile Gabriel was going after one of the exits of the city while the soldiers tasked to him were commanded by one of their own, as Gabriel had given him the leadership position.

Now, the attackers were prepared and after some war chants, they started marching towards the city. The attackers had organized themselves mostly into squadrons of twenty-five, in five-by-five grids where the one in the middle was the leader.

At the same time, they had some specialization units that were smaller and tasked with specific things, such as deflecting arrows. Overall, the numbers of the attackers numbered over five-hundred members while the defenders that were still fight-worthy numbered around three hundred.

Or that was the information with which the defenders were working, as they didn’t see that further behind two times the number of followers of the thief-god awaited in case they were needed. They had started their attack with a third of their strength in order to take out any possible trump-cards the defenders had, and they believed that if there was none, they would be able to take Destin back with this amount, keeping most of their strength available in case someone else decided to join the party.

Now both sides were attacking each other from afar but the soldiers in front of the attackers had now managed to get to the walls and would start scaling them once the next barrage of attacks got through. Meanwhile the fire had already consumed it’s first building and had now spread to its surrounding three.

People inside Destin had started to realize that something was burning and fought against it, but they didn’t have enough manpower to handle the situation, therefore the pyre just kept on spreading. On the front of the battle, someone noticed some light behind them, but it was a soldier that quickly died after getting impaled by a spear.

Gabriel had been groggily escaping but the entrance of the city was guarded. Gabriel acted like he was hurt and called them for help, telling them that he had been attacked by someone after trying to put out a fire that the person had started and needed someone to help him stop the fire before it burned down his house.

The guards heard this and looked behind him and even though they couldn’t see the fire, the lights were noticeable, so they divided themselves in two and some went directly to the fire while the others turned to get more help from other guards that hadn’t been forced to participate in the direct defense of Destin.

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With the guards finally gone, Gabriel could exit Destin without a hitch, and he directly went towards the forest where his sister should be waiting for him. But she wasn’t there, and she hadn’t left anything there to tell him where she had gone to.

Gabriel knew that she had left Destin because he had seen her do so, but perhaps she had come back? That didn’t make sense… maybe she got attacked by some wild beasts, but she’d be able to fend them off. The only logical reasoning was that she decided not to be there and probably went towards the battle, even though Gabriel had tried to keep her away from it.

Observing the area in more detail he realized that she had most likely been there, as some marks on the ground showed someone her size sitting for quite a while and then some plants were mushed and bended in a certain direction, pointing further inside the forest.

The attackers were now clearly winning, as they started rushing into the city and either incapacitating or killing anyone who put resistance. The predictions were correct, and some cash was handed out between some of the generals that had stayed behind. Nearby, a girl was hiding very well and observed the soldiers, be it their weapons, uniforms or manners, she was interested in it.

But to get to the place she was in it took quite a bit of skills but much more luck and given that the soldiers didn’t stay completely put, she would most likely not be able to leave soon. Not that she really wanted, but she knew that her brother would come to search for her and would make trouble.

Alas, there was nothing she could do. And as she predicted her brother had followed her through her not-so-hidden trail. Both of them saw each other, even if they were about a dozen trees apart, but Gabriel clearly signaled that she was in trouble.

Not in trouble from anyone right at the moment, but rather than when they got together again, she’d feel the consequences of her actions. For a moment, she considered leaving his brother behind, by joining the soldiers but quickly discarded the idea.

Not only would they dislike the thought of someone having watched them for a while, but they’d also probably notice her skin and wouldn’t be so supportive anymore. And the next day, when the sun would be out and there was more light or at night if they were curious, they’d see her horns. It could go well, in theory, but she knew that her brother also meant well. Even if he didn’t do it in the best way most of the times.

While Arabelle went through this train of thought Gabriel had already skillfully moved to her tree and when she realized that he was so close she almost screamed but was stopped by Gabriel’s hand who not only covered her mouth to shut her up, but also tied her in order to prevent her from doing anything rash, such as escaping. He didn’t want to deal with more today as he was still weakened by the contract. But he’d and his sister would make it out alive and that’s what mattered to him.

The city was now in complete chaos. The main generals and the boss had realized that it was a lost cause and also that someone had betrayed them and started a fire which ended costing a lot of lives not only of the townspeople but also of their soldiers who left the front of the battle in order to try and save their families, possessions or simply their lives.

With little time before they were forced to escape, they went towards a building where all of the contracts of their soldiers were signed to search for any which glowed. It wasn’t hard to find one which glowed as many soldiers had left the battle, but they were searching for one paper that barely glowed, because with time the mana dissuaded.

And the fire had started quite a while ago, observed by how much it had spread. They managed to get to Gabriel’s barely glowing document in the nick of time, when some soldiers started trying to break into the home and that was their cue to leaving through one of the hidden exits hidden all throughout the town.

They mostly wanted the document to know which family to go for, but when, while escaping, they read the identity of the most likely perpetrator they realized that it wasn’t a family they were after as the criminal had most likely survived and escaped.

When they tried to track Gabriel through magic, they realized that the spell was too weak now and they’d have to do it the old-fashioned way, simply searching for someone that looked like him. But that would be quite easy as there were vert few red-skinned individuals that lived in most cities and most of them were known for being sages or being busy with other professions which would make them known and a new red guy would instantly be noticed amongst crowds.

And revenge was a given, they wouldn’t let him go because that showed an example for the rest of what could happen if you tried to betray him. The masses were harder to dissuade so even though some of the escaped soldiers may get searched for as well, it wasn’t of much importance for them.